William Price, 1810-1850

A biography of the British-born William Price (1789-1867), a lumber merchant and manufacturer of planks (deals), as well as an economic description of the nineteenth-century timber trade centred around Quebec City. Price immigrated to Quebec City in 1810. The author claims that Price deserves a special place in Canadian economic history primarily as a contractor. She points out that his profits realized from trade were gradually reinvested in sawmills and lumbering. Before 1830 Price's company bought almost all its planks from various small firms in Lower Canada. The author maintains that Price encouraged the sawmill owners to increase their production, financed them, and subsequently acquired the mortgaged sawmills. Thus, before 1838, the sawmills of Batiscan, Saint-Vallier, Bic, Rimouski, Métis (Métis-sur-Mer), La Malbaie, Anse-à-l’Eau and Moulin-Baude near Tadoussac, and those of Bytown (Ottawa) and Crosby in Upper Canada, were entered on Price's company’s books.

Master's Thesis

Université Laval

Québec

1964

en